Jefferies: Wants bigger crowds

Killie boss Jim Jefferies has urged fair-weather fans to get behind the team and show their faces ahead of the CIS Insurance Cup final. The club have sold out their five-figure ticket allocation for next weekend's Hampden Park date with Hibernian, but crowds at Rugby Park have regularly dipped below 5,000 this season. Kilmarnock have slashed ticket prices for Saturday's home match against Inverness, and designated it a family day. Jefferies hopes those fans who are heading to Hampden Park will respond to the offer. "That's another thing we have been asking, give us a good send-off, come along to the two cup finals," he said. "Saturday is a cup final in terms of the league situation because we can take a giant step towards making the top six. "And the fans can play a big part; all teams, when they have got a good atmosphere, play better. Hopefully, we can do that on Saturday." Jefferies insists the club offers value for money, reduced prices or not. He said: "We've given them a lot of good football, we have been consistently in the top six and we've reached a major cup final - after slashing our wage bill in half." The club will come away from Hampden next week with a handsome cheque as their share of gate receipts, but Jefferies is resigned to working on a similar budget next season. "It doesn't give us any more money to buy players or increase wage bills," he explained. "Because, if you do that and have a bad year, you are back in the same boat. "We have just got to make sure the success we are having at the moment takes the pressure off financially - that's what it's about."